Fitbit One

A while back we reviewed the Fitbit Zip, a colorful, high tech pedometer that is pretty awesome to say the least. Well, with all good things, comes something even better!

So lift your glass to the Fitbit One, dubbed an “activity tracker” as it does more than just count steps. Much like the Fitbit Zip, the Fitbit One counts steps, tells you the time, estimates calories burned, estimates distance traveled, visually indicates how active you’ve been…but wait, there’s more! Adding to the Zip’s functionality, the Fitbit One counts stairs climbed…allowing and encouraging you to set goals on vertical climbs throughout the day.

The display on the Fitbit One is pretty cool. If it’s been idle for awhile, it will sense when it gets moved, and typically encourages you with a friendly “Let’s Get Moving!” message, or some other pre-programed message saying to get off your lazy duff and get going for the day. A simple click of the single button, and you’ll be seeing your step-count, distance traveled (with pretty great accuracy for not being based on GPS!), estimated calories burned, flights of stairs climbed, and a fun flower that grows taller with more activity, and shorter with less activity.

What’s that? You actually sleep at night? we’ll see about that. The Fitbit One comes with an elastic wristband to wear on your wrist (on your non-dominant arm), to measure your night’s sleep. It measures the amount of movement, translating it to the time you were asleep vs the time you were awake tossing and turning. Then moving to the Fitbit dashboard (on the computer) you’ll find out how long you were in bed, how long it took for you to fall asleep, how many times you woke up, how long you actually slept, and what your sleep efficiency was. Once the Fitbit One is in the elastic wristband, and you get into bed, simply press the button for 2-3 seconds and the display will start blinking and show a stopwatch. It’s now in sleep mode…when you wake up in the morning, press that same button for 2-3 seconds and the display will stop flashing and a time will appear, you’re done. Sync your Fitbit using the included wireless USB dongle and see your results!

Fitbit One

Sometimes we just have to stop enjoying the fun of measuring our sleep, and life’s obligations call, so you have to wake up. Well, the One has something to help with that too…especially for those who sleep in the same bed … or room as someone who doesn’t need to be awake as early. The silent alarm! On the online Fitbit dashboard you can setup silent alarms for the Fitbit One. When set, the One will vibrate to wake you up silently, so you aren’t waking the house up with your 6:00am alarm clock…but BEWARE of 2 things here…First, there’s no snooze function…so get UP. Second, you have to have the Fitbit One in the sleeve on your wrist, or it’ll vibrate wherever it is and never wake you up!

In all, it’s fun to track how many steps, flights of stairs, and sleep patterns to see if you’re getting the all recommended 10,000 steps a day recommended by most everyone who researches being active. The Fitbit dashboard will proudly tell you your lifetime achievements, in terms of overall distance traveled, lifetime steps achieved (all since using the Fitbit), and flights of stairs climbed. It also shows you your personal bests in terms of badges you’ve earned…what’s the most steps you’ve gotten in one day? what’s the most flights of stairs you’ve traversed in a day? It has specific badges you can earn, and proudly show to all your friends with social networking integrated throughout the site as well as a way to friend others who have Fitbit devices!